I believe there are a number of reasons why we struggle playing in this format.
The biggest in my opinion is, and I know some won’t like hearing this. The US players in general are a pretty pampered bunch. As ridiculous as it may sound, we would probably fair better pulling the top 12 guys from the web.com tour and sending them over to compete. Guys who are still hungry, and don’t have the bank accounts our pros have.
The second point is our captain. In truth he ain’t in charge of shit. If he was he would pick and pair them to actually win. And not allow the players to pick who plays with whom. The reality is that he is forced to treat this as entertainment, because in truth that is what it is for us, entertainment. The players don’t even try to hide it anymore. There are sub-sets of the team that all have different agendas. You can’t develop a cohesive effort when you are forced to acquiesce to the whims of the players. If we REALLY wanted to win, a lot of guys would get their feelings hurt. And you would see some confrontation on occasion when someone fucks up. But, that wouldn’t play well once this thing was over.
Television. That’s right, television. This is like a reality show. No matter how many times Sir Nick Faldo declares it is a bigger pressure cooker then any major, I say he is full of shit. Some of our guys look as if they could care less. Sure, they like having it on their resume. And do want to win...but on their own terms. But privately, to a man they would ALL take a major title over this exhibition.
Precedent. Going back to the early 70’s the US was unable to find a single motocross rider that could win the world championships....in any classification. I rode a Yamaha works bike from 74 - 76. I am fully aware of the multiple strategies deployed in an attempt to identify and correct this problem. The manufacturers needed the US market desperately. And were willing to spend the money to find someone, anyone, who could dethrone the DeCoster’s and Mikkola’s of the world. It got so bad they were instrumental in developing Supercross. The data supported that to win those events required the riders to essentially live overseas 6 months a year. And those of us that rode in those years couldn’t or wouldn’t consider that. So we used to just sigh, and state, if you can’t beat em, invent a different sport. Since that time the revenue earned by Supercross events makes the World Moto seem like a local event in West Texas. Unless you spend a lot of time overseas it is extremely difficult to compete at a high level in a one shot winner take all event. The Euro’s on the other hand spend a huge amount of time over here. Hell, look how many live in Jupiter Florida. And ain’t none of our guys going to entertain, even for a second to agreeing to living over there just to get acclimated and feel comfortable for this one event.